Dimmer and downlight woes, can anyone help?

[gilford]

I am in the middle of totally revamping my lounge. I have put the plasma on the wall etc and I'm having fitted cupboards in the alcove's either side of the chimney breast which the plasma hangs on. I have had 10 small 50w downlights fitted in the ceiling.

My problem is this, I have one switch as you enter the room with 2 switches on it which I was hoping to replace with a 2 gang dimmer, one to dim the 10 downlights and the other to dim the 2 downlights in the fitted units in the alcoves.

I presume I would need a 2x 500w dimmer switch to control these? 1 to do the 10 and the other to do the 2? I am struggling to find such a switch on the net

Without having to put another hole and switch in the wall what are my options here?

Cheers

 

[breezer]

will there be a box for the sunglasses?

500w its a bit much.

to dim 500w of halogen lamps you will nead a 1000w dimmer as dimmers have to be downrated for halogens. I doubt you will find a 2 gang 1000w dimmer. 2 singles yes, 1 double- probably not due to the size

 

[gilford]

Thanks for the reply breezer

It is a fairly large lounge and to be totally honest, the room still isn't that bright with the 10 fitted

The 2 in the fitted units will only be 20w IIRC, I doubt Neville Johnson will use 50w in an oak unit?

I may go for 1x 1000w dimmer then and just have a small switch inside the cupboard for the other 2?

Another quick question, I have 6 50w downlights in my dining room and would love a dimmer in there. There are 2 switches, one by the hall door and one by the lounge, both just single switch. I have unscrewed both, one has 3 single wires going into it and the other has doubles going into each of the 3 holes, I'm presuming this is because you can turn the lights on in 2 places?

I have a double depth box on the switch with the double wires in it, could I get a 300w dimmer and fit it @ this location?

Cheers for the help!

gilford

 

[breezer]

Because they are 50 w each, i have to assume they are halogen, so no, you need a 600w dimmer (same reason as before)

you can use a 1000w dimmer though, however, you can only have 1 dimmer on a 2 way cct (which is what you have)
Unless you opt for a master / slave dimmer but i don't know if they can dim 300w of halogens